The Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Adherence and Signal Transduction is a premier international meeting that brings together a group of researchers with a shared interest in understanding the diverse mechanisms bacteria have evolved to interact with each other and animal hosts. The meeting is held biennially at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. The 2013 meeting will be held July 21-26. The meeting will focus on the diverse approaches used to address questions on how microbes sense, respond, colonize, and eventually spread in both the environment and in host organisms. Attendees will include an equal distribution of independent investigators, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. Molecular, genetic, biochemical, immunological and structural approaches will all be represented. There will be nine seminar sessions with session leaders that will provide an overview of the topic and stimulate discussion from the attendees. The 2013 meeting will be chaired by Craig R. Roy (Yale University), with the assistance of Jean-Marc Ghigo (Institute Pasteur), and the elected vice-chairs Matthew Parsek (University of Washington, Seattle) and Jorg Vogel (University of Wurtzburg). This meeting provides a forum where cutting-edge research will be presented on the mechanisms of bacterial adherence and signal transduction. There are slots reserved in thematic seminar sessions to be populated by postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, giving them an opportunity to share their discoveries and gain exposure at a high-impact international conference. This meeting provides an environment that enables networking among investigators, and gives postdoctoral researchers and graduate students access to influential leaders in the field of microbial adherence and signal transduction. The program includes many new investigators that have not previously presented their research at this meeting, and includes new sessions that reflect the multidisciplinary approaches being used to address questions of seminal importance in the field.